Sex. Love. Control. Vanity.
Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. is the third studio album recorded by American singer Natasha Lewis. It was released on November 22, 2010, by Fach Records. Lewis began planning the project in 2009, shortly after the launch of her second effort, Extreme Behavior. Lewis described Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. as "a celebration and a poetic musical journey" and an exploration of human feelings. Lewis collaborated with various producers on the record, including Cherry Cherry Boom Boom, Fernando Garibay and Jeff Bhasker. Lyrically, Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. revolves around Lewis' personal views of love, sex and self-empowerment. The album received generally favorable reviews from music critics, but was commercially successful, debuting at number one on the United States' Billboard 200 albums chart with first-week sales of 324,000 copies, becoming Lewis' second consecutive number one record in the country. It also topped national record charts in five additional countries and charted within the top ten in over 20. Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. ''was the tenth best-selling album of 2010 with 1.8 million copies worldwide, having sold 2.5 million units as of July 2013. It was also included in several year-end lists by music critics and publications. '''Background and recording' Development of Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. began shortly after the release of Extreme Behavior ''(2009), and the album's concepts were "beginning to flourish" as Lewis collaborated with producers Fernando Garibay and Jeff Bhasker. Initial recording sessions for ''Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. coincided with the Hollywood Doll Tour, with up to 40 songs sketched out and considered for inclusion. By May 2010, the project was taking definite form, with co-manager Berenice Lamonica promising "insane, great records" within its craft. Lewis began presenting tracks to her record company and hoped to reveal the album's working title by July, a revelation that instead was announced only with the lead single reveal. Lewis recruited Cherry Cherry Boom Boom into the project in late 2010, when she was doing the final touches to the record but "felt like something was missing". In addition to Fach notifying mainstream media outlets on upcoming releases for Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. in July 2010, Lewis announced plans for a totally different promotion from her previous albums - later revealed to be a co-headlining with her former boyfriend Francis Leverett. Release Lewis' manager Berenice Lamonica confirmed that the album would not be released until the later half of 2010. In September 2010, Lewis updated her official website announcing the advent of the new album era, with revealing the name of the lead single, "V". On September 28, the singer appeared on Apple Radio's Beats 1 and revealed that the name of the album as Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. and release date as November 22, 2010. She also confirmed that within the next month, the recording would be finished. Prior to its release, the album faced a number of leaks. On Amazon.com, the album was listed for pre-order and the songs were to be available as and when released. However, on Amazon's Echo speakers, fans found that if they instructed it to "Play Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. by Natasha Lewis", it previewed 30 second snippets of each track. Amazon later disabled previews for the whole album. Singles "V" was released as the lead single from the album on September 28, 2010, and was a critical and commercial success, charting within the top ten in more than 20 countries worldwide, debuting at number one on the Billboard ''Hot 100 chart in the United States. The track received positive reviews from music critics, with many of them complimenting its catchiness, the lyrical content and Lewis' vocal delivery. The second single, "On The Stereo", was made available on December 12, 2010, reaching number 4 in the US Billboard Hot 100. It was also a huge success in Europe, reaching the top 10 in the biggest markets, including France, Italy, Germany and the UK, where it reached number one. It was followed by "Breathe Me" in February 2011, which became her most powerful ballad to date. The song had good results on the US, Europe and Australia, especially after the release of the music video, which was critically acclaimed. "Break You Hard." was the fourth and last single released from the album, but both the promotion and the music video were canceled at last minute. '''Critical reception' Upon its release, Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of hundred to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 64, based on 25 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Stephen Thomas Erlewine from AllMusic provided a favorable review, describing it as a "darker version of Extreme Behavior", but preferred its predecessor for being more "sleek or addictive" than Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly appreciated the overall production of Sex. Love. Control. Vanity.. Robert Christgau from The Independent gave Sex. Love. Control. Vanity. a two-star honorable mention, stating that it was "too dark to be fun". Jon Pareles of The New York Times expressed his enjoyment of the "crisp" material that incorporated "catchy melodic interludes". Caryn Ganz from Rolling Stone opined that the "clubby, dark pop" included on the album is a satisfactory successor to her second studio album. Ann Powers from Los Angeles Times felt disappointed that "Natasha is quite simply rubbish at being sexy". Track listing